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Musings on a Monday

I hope everyone had a very nice weekend. Now it is Monday and we’re back at work. So I thought we might at least have an uplifting post for a Monday. So without any further ado, get ready to feel some love for the archives and libraries of the world:

This is an article for all the archivists out there and historians who toil away in the archives. This is Eric Jager’s article, “Lost in the Archives”. This article to me is the one to point people to who think that everything is on the Internet. People often speak of the deep web, but few spend time thinking about the equivalent of the deep web in the physical realm of paper and books, manuscripts and letters. There is an entire world of archives, unprocessed collections and overlooked papers being processed, collected and cared for by the archivists of the world. And, for most collections, if you want to experience them, you must still go to an archives, sit down at a table with only pencils and sometimes a laptop to take your notes. It can be slow going, but the thrill of the find, as Jager notes, is what makes archival research so wonderful. So raise your glass to your neighborly archivist. And be nice to him or her, because only the archivist really knows what’s back in the archives!

Speaking of appreciating librarians and archivists, check out this article on“Using your Librarians”. So reference librarians rejoice! There is at least one human out there who appreciates what you do and how much you know. I love the last line: “reference desk librarians are the etymologists, the orthoepists, and the collectors of citations of the library.”

And finally, a wonderful xkcd comic to brighten your day. This is for the math people out there. If you don’t get it, go over and ask your friendly math librarian.